Star Wars: REBELS
by Deezmartini
Summary: Inspired by the recent announcement, this series follows the life of Kessan Jin, a Jedi initiate who finds himself in the same conflict that he thought had died with his heritage nearly ten years ago . . . (Set between Episode III and IV)


STAR WARS

REBELS

Forward-

Ten years after Episode III, a survivor of the Jedi purge has found a new life as a smuggler. But a chance meeting with a group of revolutionaries protecting a young child extremely powerful in the force will change his life forever . . . .

ACT ONE

"NO JEDI"

The dreams never left him.

He remembered the heat the most- the fires that slowly ate at wide-eyed corpses as soldiers clad in white stepped over them. He saw again that robed betrayer, wielding a blade with a crisp blue sheen.

_What was his name again? _

The robed man had been a hero once, a role model that all the initiates had looked up to.

_Anakin Skywalker. The Butcher of Coruscuant. _

"day-dreaming again, Kess?"

Kessan Jin opened his eyes, lifting a tired head to see the listless black expanse of space before him. His ship, the _Mocking Krayt, _rumbled as it resisted the pull of one of Onderon's distant moons. The green jewel itself was visible over the curving upper-atmosphere that belonged to the moon they orbited, a beautiful veneer that hid the iron fist of the Empire.

"More like waiting for some action." Kessan sighed as he sat upright in his sagging chair. A deathstick idly gave off dying smoke as it suffocated in an ashtray near shared controls. Sitting beside Kessan was Duran Holtis, a fellow smuggler.

"You know the drill as well as I do. We're waiting for imperial patrols to make their rounds. Unless you want to go head-first into a swarm of TIE's." Duran bit off the last portion of his statement with a hiss as he bit into a nabooean pear, sucking the juices as the excess fled from his mouth.

" I don't see any Stardestroyers." Kessan leaned closer to the view-screen that separated him from the cold embrace of space. Even with vision supporting aides, he did not spot the iconic V-shaped cruisers lazily navigating Onderon's asteroid belt.

"Trust me, they're there. Stealth fields, most like." Duran said in-between bites. Kicking his feet out and slamming them on the control board, he let out a large yawn as he spread his arms wide.

" Might as well make yourself comfortable." He raised an eyebrow at Kessan.

"You alright, Kess? You were talking in your sleep again."

Kessan saw his instructor fend off Anakin as clone troopers fired from behind. He was eight years old then, and had to be carried by one of the older boys as they fled through the long winding corridors of the Temple.

"I'm fine." Kessan said quietly as he attempted to draw his mind to something else- anything was better than that fateful night.

_I shouldn't be alive. _

"You kept saying-"

_Fire. She said fire was everywhere. I saw it too. The fire. _

"I said I was fine, Duran. Drop it." Kessan reached for his deathstick, which immediately began smoking in renewed vigor once it touched his lips. Inhaling the smoke, he closed his eyes again.

"We're carrying fifty bites of spice on board- don't give me any more reasons to stress out. When I took this job, I didn't expect to be questioned about my past." Kessan laid his head back, but whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the fire.

_Why was I the one who survived? Why? _

_She protected you. And now look at what you've done with your life. Selling drugs to fuel your own addiction. _

He pushed the voices in his mind away, blindly inhaling more of the toxic fumes from his deathstick as Duran idly hummed a cantina song.

It was then he heard the crash. It was booming, and for a few seconds after he opened his eyes, all he saw was moving stars.

"KESS!" Duran screamed as Kessan attempted to get his bearings. But as he did, the source of the sound became all-too apparent. Kessan turned to Duran as a shadow passed over his face, while tie-fighters howled , firing warning shots with each pass.

"We've finally been caught." Kessan said with a sigh. They had a good run- but everyone knew that it was impossible to evade the Empire forever.

"No, you have." Duran said softly as he pulled a gun from his holster. Kessan looked at Duran with wide eyes as their ship was drawn into the destroyer's maw with a vicious tractor beam.

" What is this?" Kessan rasped.

"The Exchange should have stayed dead. Those shipments we have been losing – it is because of me. Why would I not come personally on what could be the biggest drug pull in the outer-rim quadrants?"

"A double agent." Kess swore. Duran nodded almost jovially, guiding Kessan to his feet with his gun in the process.

"You'll make a good miner. They can always use more hands on Kessel. Or you'll die. It makes no difference to me- you're just another piece of scum in this galaxy."

Silently, Kessan agreed. He was plucked from his ship like a shivering child, forced into a black and streamlined hangar as uniformed men piled racks upon racks of spice on the glossy floor.

"This is enough for ten life-sentences." a caped man stated. Kessan was bound by him, two stormtroopers at his side.

The caped man gave Kessan a sideways glance, and then smirked.

"You smugglers will never learn. Your kind are prone to back-stabbings and sabotage. You should have expected this betrayal." He tittered in a rich coruscanti accent. Kessan had long lost his- and he had almost forgot what men sounded like from the core.

Suddenly, what looked like an ensign burst through a wall of stormtroopers, several of them muttering in annoyance.

"Captain Lerys! Captain!" He called, stopping before Lerys and Kessan as he saluted. Lerys nodded forward with annoyance.

"Proceed." He granted.

"Captain . . . the Inquisitoris en route to us right now. He should be arriving from Hyperspace shortly." The ensign said almost apologetically.

For a moment, a flicker of fear danced within Leyrs' eyes.

"What business does Inquisitor _Baethis _have in the Outer-Rim?" Leyrs said coolly.

The ensign hesitated, locking eyes with Kessan for a moment. Lerys followed the ensign's glance, frowning with disapproval.

" He's a damned smuggler, not a spy. _Sith's blood, out with it_."

The ensign swallowed deeply, and then stood even straighter, as if the weight of what he was about to say could topple him.

"Lord Inquisitor Baethis . . . has received intelligence of a Jedi enclave in the forests of Onderon. Our regiment will make the assault . . . under his command."

Lerys froze for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he regained his composure.

"Throw this refuse in the cells, and schedule him for execution. I want this ship operating at 400% capacity. Refuel the ion battery charges and all fighters. Baethis . . . is not as forgiving as I am. If we are found with even one flaw, it will be our death."


End file.
